The data center networking technology called Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA) has been developed by Cisco Systems, Inc., to simplify, optimize, and automate a unified fabric environment. DFA is based on four building blocks: fabric management, workload automation, optimized networking and virtual fabrics. Each of these building blocks provides a group of functions that can be deployed independently in a modular fashion. This approach allows easy adoption of new technology as the data center fabric architecture evolves.